Team Experience: Collective Emmy Ballot, Drama 
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 at 11:14AM
NATHANIEL R in Emmy, Empire, FYC, Hayley Atwell, Mad Men, Masters of Sex, Orange is the New Black, TV, Team Experience, Teddy Sears, The Fall, The Leftovers

Part 1 of 2... DRAMA!
Part 2 -- Comedy 

Eleven members of our team* turned in full Emmy ballots. I've compiled the results for you here. This is a very limited pool versus the thousands from the Television Academy who will vote on the actual Emmys but I thought it might be interesting for readers who are invested in this 'new golden age' of television. 

REMINDER: THESE ARE NOT PREDICTIONS

What follows is what we communally hope for when the nominations are announced. Voting on the nominations for the real Emmys ends this Friday, June 26th. The nominations will be announced on July 16th (what takes them so long to tally it?) and the ceremony happens on September 20th. It's a ridiculously wide spread of time -- nearly double the Oscar voting spread.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

Twenty-two different series received at least one vote but there were no votes at all for two Emmy regulars in this category (Downton Abbey & House of Cards). No series made every ballot though Mad Men and Masters of Sex were out front together in that regard. I forgot to hold a tiebreaker vote between The Leftovers and The Fall for the final slot so I made the choice myself, and erred on the side of way more ambition though The Fall was arguably more consistent. The nearest misses were The Affair and Agent Carter. The Agent Carter contingency surprised me even though I adore the show but then we're friendlier to non-prestige genre shows here (The Flash, Orphan Black and Daredevil also received votes). We shouldn't bring up the painful years of snubs for Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, two of the finest shows TV ever produced. Neither of which could get arrested by Emmy voters in major categories. (sigh)

Acting Categories after the jump...

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Fourteen women received at least one vote in this category. In run-off voting Hayley Atwell, nailing her show's 1940's stylized tone of light adventure dramedy, surprisingly trounced Emmy winner Julianna Margulies for the final spot (though they started with the same amount of votes). Eva Green also had fans but rather shocking that Keri Russell wasn't truly in the mix given the strong support for her series in the Drama category.

Note: Penny Dreadful airs on Showtime in a very confusing cross eligibility period so apparently it is eligible only for its 1st season this time as its on the nomination ballot for main title design (which you can only be eligible for in your first season or have majorly redesigned your opening credits) and Helen McRory is only eligible for "guest" though she's in every episode of Season 2. 

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES 

This category had the closest voting, with nearly all of these nominees receiving the same total of votes, apart from Jon Hamm who was on nearly all of the ballots. Dominic West from the Affair was the extra seventh wheel who had to go during tiebreaker voting. 

Please Note: There were also a few votes for Hannibal's lead actors but they had to be reallocated since due to its slightly longer than a year gap in scheduling between Seasons 2 and 3 (it was just cancelled) it skipped this year of eligibility. It will be eligible at next year's Emmys for this final third season, though. Of course by then it will be a distant memory.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

Nineteen women received votes in this category, with Mad Men, The Leftovers, and Orange is the New Black hogging the entire category in actual Team Experience nominations.  It'll be interesting to see if any one or two shows dominate at the Emmy race in this category since there are so many dramas with lots of good female roles on television at the moment. Udo Azuba, "Crazy Eyes" from Orange, was the seventh competitor who lost out in the tiebreaking votes. Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), and Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex) had to settle for runner up status in our polling.

Please Note: A couple of people wanted to vote for Gwendolyn Christie or Keirnan Shipka but neither are eligible at the Emmys in this category --  Christie was not submitted and Shipka is placed in Guest for some reason (even though I think she's in more than 50% of the episodes which you'd think would disqualify her given the new rules).

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Beyond Slattery, Smollett, and Dinklage (easily the leaders) there was virtually no consensus in this category (does that mean it's weak or strong? you decide in the comments) with an incredible 30 men receiving votes, and usually just one vote at that. People couldn't even agree who was best within each series. So these nominees come from the slimmest of margins and we had to go into tie breaking voting which still only narrowed it down to seven leaving Matt Czuchry as the extra man out. But he has received some media attention this year so maybe he'll finally swing his first Emmy nod for The Good Wife? 

I was so very pleased to see support for Teddy Sears who I think has done great befuddled, sexy, sly, work on both seasons of Masters of Sex and he's had quite a character arc, too. But it's the kind of performance that's easy to overlook because a) he's a hunk b) he makes it look effortless and c) his work is in the context of his romances with women and romantic drama, as we see at the Oscars and at the Emmys, is much more nomination fruitful for women than men.

I hope this was fun for you to ponder. Or perhaps it made you angry? What surprised you most about these outcomes? Are you enraged that The Good Wife missed in all categories despite some love in all the categories it was eligible for?  

You can see our full individual ballots here if you're interested!

Also:  Our "About" page is finally complete so you can put faces and identities to posts if you're curious about Team Experience. You'll be most familiar with the "weekly contributors" but beyond that is all the people you read from time to time  whenever we do these special projects or themes or top tens or years of the month or who hop in and out. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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